Child predator gets 50 years in federal prison

FAYETTEVILLE — A man who prosecutors call a child predator who is serving six years in a North Carolina prison will report to federal prison to serve 50 years when his state sentence is finished.

The Fayetteville Observer reported that 46-year-old man William Lee Pait Jr. of Bladenboro could finish his state sentence next month.

Pait was sentenced in federal court in Raleigh on Tuesday to 50 years for trying to lure young girls over the Internet, the same crime he was convicted of in state court. Authorities say Pait posed as a teenage boy online to meet girls.

The Constitution's double-jeopardy provision says a person cannot be prosecuted twice for the same crime. But the federal and state governments are separate under that rule, sometimes allowing federal prosecutions for crimes.